[gavel] >> good afternoon. welcome to the san francisco board of supervisors meeting of tuesday, june the 11th, 2013. madam clerk, could you please call the roll? supervisor avalos? avalos present. supervisor breed? breed absent. supervisor campos? campos present. supervisor chiu? chiu present. supervisor cohen? cohen present. supervisor farrell? farrell present. supervisor kim? kim here. supervisor mar? mar present. supervisor tang? tang present. supervisor wiener? wiener present. supervisor yee? yee present. mr. president, you have a quorum. >> thank you. ladies and gentlemen, could you join us in the pledge of allegiance? i pledge allegiance to the flag

of the united states of america, and to the republic for which it stands; one nation under god, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. [ [inaudible]] ~ >> colleagues, we have our may 7, 2013 board meeting minutes. could i have a motion to approve those minutes? motion by supervisor campos? seconded by supervisor farrell. without objection, those meeting minutes are approved. [gavel] >> madam present, are there 104th communications? >> there are no communications, mr. president a. read our [speaker not understood]. >> edwin lee and members of the board of supervisors. this week representing the odd district, specifically 1, 3, 9 and 11. mayor may address the board initially for up to five minutes and if the president will recognize the supervisor who will present their own question to the mayor, follow-up questions are in order as long as the entire discussion does not exceed five minutes per supervisor. >> mr. mayor, i want to welcome you back to the board chamber to our 2:00 p.m. special order for formal question time. the floor is yours. >> thank you.

good afternoon, supervisors and good afternoon again to our guests and residents and san francisco. it is my pleasure to be here. i know there is a full agenda for your board, so, let's go ahead, right to the questions. thank you. >> why don't we hear from our first colleague from district 1, supervisor mar. >> thank you. thank you, mayor lee. this is a long one, but a very important one. as part of our state's effort to curb greenhouse gases by 15% by 20 40, california under senate bill 378 or is sb 375, requires that san francisco bay area create land use and transportation based quote sustainable end stratejai end quote to meet this goal. the association of bay area government through abag and the metropolitan transportation commission or mtc, are developing regional strategy called plan bay area to comply with this mandate. ~ the plan requires that most of the a disal 2.1 million people projected to live in the bay area by 20 40 be housed near

transit and jobs to discourage the use of cars as their primary means of commuting. san francisco is estimated to build 92,400 more housing units for 280,000 more people and 190,000 more jobs, most in the high tech sector. sb 375 also calls for streamlining the c-e-q-a process for transit priority projects. potentially the entire city of san francisco would be eligible for ceqa exemption. this proposed reduction in scrutiny of development projects could further exacerbate those displacement impacts to existing communities. upwards of 33% of the people living in communities of concern in san francisco or areas where high numbers of renters, low-income households, or non-english speakers could be displaced. over 40 local and regional environmental and community advocacy groups are now opposing the current draft plan. a consensus of formed or strong

support has formed around the following recommendations for making plan bay area better. one, provide $3 billion in additional operating revenue for local transit service and commit to a long-range regional transit operating program to boost transit operating subsidies by another $9 billion over the coming years. two, move 5% of the housing growth from low-income communities mainly in san francisco, oakland, and san jose, to transit connected suburban job centers. three, incorporate strong anti-displacement policies for community stabilization measures such as land banking and preservation of affordable housing in at-risk neighborhoods. and four, direct the planning department to analyze the impacts of potential c-e-q-a streamlining as soon as possible and create strong mitigation measures. lastly, do you support these measures, and are you committed to a plan with lower displacement levels than the current proposal? if you do not support these

ideas, why not? >> thank you, supervisor, for your question. and i want to know that i understand you are very active in the association bay area government, the abag and your commitment to work together as a region is very impressive. the work under taken by the plan area, the plan bay area is important and we are, in fact, facing a head-on reality that this region will experience a significant amount of growth over the next 30 years. and if planned correctly, we can accommodate this growth in the way that will achieve our greenhouse gas reduction goals rather than exacerbate the problem. i want to point out that many of the recommendations proposed, whether they are included in the plan or not, are already in place here locally. san francisco has some of the strongest antidisplacement and housing preservation policies in the region. in a comment letter sent to abag and mtc, city staff has already offered to work with

those organizations at a regional level to mitigate displacement impacts. and i'm supporting that effort. regarding proposed c-e-q-a streamlining, i want to note that the planning department staff has a number of outstanding questions to be answered by the association of bay area governments and the mtc regarding the provisions that are in senate bill 375. and until those questions are answered, we are -- we cannot assess the likelihood of the planning department using the c-e-q-a streamlining provisions that you mentioned. however, we do know that the senate bill 375 provisions are similar to streamlining provisions that already exist, including community plan exemptions, and the class 3 2 categorical exemption processes. finally, regarding funding for transit operations, we have to build public confidence by providing a reliable transportation system that's reliably funded.

i have called for our san francisco 2030 transportation task force to report back to me. board president david chiu and sfmta chairman tom nolan with a coordinated set of priorities and actionable recommendations that either by executive order or ordinance or even the ballot will maintain the [speaker not understood] of our streets and make muni and the other transportation systems of our city work the way they need to. in sum, supervisor, the plan bay area is an opportunity to think regionally and strategically about our future growth, something that we've been doing for a long time locally with our many area plans. and whether we do this at the local regional level, protections against displacementses are an integral part of that puzzle, accommodating growth at the responsible way. thank you. >> thank you. i will provide the next question. during question time. ~ mr. mayor, last year the san francisco board of supervisors made small but important changes to your proposed budget that represented our shared city-wide priorities.

in fact, our changes only represented 0.3% of the entire budget. in recent months controller data indicates that positions allocated by the board for librarians, recreation park staff, building inspection, health and labor enforcement, urban agriculture, and other board priorities were either not filled or only recently hired. will you commit to ensuring that when the fy '13-'14 budget is approved, all board of supervisors' priorities will be treated equally to your administrations with positions filled as soon as possible? or can we work together to improve our hiring process once positions are created? >> thank you, president chiu, and thank you for highlighting the challenges that departments have in hiring employees quickly. it's easy to me to commit to ensuring that the board of supervisors priority hires are treated equally to other hires as this is my current practice so nothing needs to change. but in fairness, i have looked into the specific departmental areas that you voiced concerns about, and i'm pleased to share

with you some good news. i know that the department of building inspection has been working very hard to hire its positions and including the three code enforcement positions that the board added back. dbi, the department of building inspection, reports it hired 11 clerks in march and one was placed in code enforcement. it hired 7 building inspectors in april and two replaced code enforcement. with the office of labor standards enforcement, my staff has confirmed with the city administrator's office that the affect position has been indeed filled and it has aer number of staff on board in the current year than in the past. regarding urban agriculture, the one-time add back including -- included funds, but not position authority in the current budget year. based on your leadership on this issue, the city administrator's office has been facilitating an important community process. this past year [speaker not understood] with our offices to

develop a plan with full buy in and we're pleased that in this next fiscal year, 13-14 budget, includes the position authority for the one-year position in the recreation and parks department. the library has made progress toward hiring all of the board's priority positions including librarians of visitacion valley, and in mission bay. it has also filled the library tech assistant position for visitacion valley. it has not yet filled the library page position because it's still waiting for an active eligible civil service list to be created which requires the department of human resources to conduct an exam. supervisor, slow hiring is frustrating for everyone and can be time consuming for various reasons including implementing new mous, developing new job classes or creating civil service hiring lists. additionally this year, the new emerge system launched which required that departments adapt to new procedures and processes which will improve the hiring

timeline in the long run. department of human resources has been working to continually improve all of the systems and streamline the process while still following civil service regulations. we can work together to ensure successful hiring through good communications with key departments and i'm always willing to hear when there are any concerns you and the board may have. thank you. >> thank you, mr. mayor. why don't we go to our next question from our district 9 colleague, supervisor campos. >> thank you, president chiu. thank you, mr. mayor. as you are aware at my request, and if i may add, with the approval of the entire board of supervisors, our budget and legislative analyst conducted a performance audit of the san francisco housing authority which it recently released. as you are aware, mr. mayor, that audit detailed an agency that is in crisis. i know that you have been conducting housing authority working group for many months

to address this crisis. and given that the local management has been problematic and the fact that the federal government for many years has been turning its back on the nation's poorest residents by de funding housing authorities across the country, what is your long-term vision to save public housing, ~ a significant asset for so many of us in this city? >> thank you, supervisor campos. well, the budget analyst's audit does confirm what we learned back in december when the housing authority was placed on the troubled list. the san francisco housing authority as it is currently structured cannot continue. it's why i went -- met back in january with hud's secretary sean donovan and asked for his support to reenvision the san francisco housing authority using a public/private partnership model. it's also why in february i replaced all but one of the

previous housing authority commissioners what a new commission that has the expertise we need to improve the finances, the management, the public safety, and current conditions at our city's public housing sites. they quickly moved to sure up the agency's procurement system [speaker not understood] needing commission approval from $100,000 to $30,000 while tightening oversight by requiring monthly procurement reports. i applaud them for making thea good government changes in advance of any audit finding because frankly it's the right way to run an agency. i know they will continue to make tough decisions that ensure the authority is efficient in its management and operations because that means better outcomes for the residents that they serve. an important next step is working with labor to provide the better maintenance for our residents by implementing an asset management as defined by hud.

labor's partnership is necessary to establish a maintenance mechanic at each of the housing authority's properties. these incremental improvements are important. but in order to make real change, we have to completely reenvision the way housing authority operates. rather than impose our view on what the housing authority must be, i reached out to the tenant leaders, the advocates, community developers, property owners who rent to section 8 tenants, community providers, city and hud staff, asked them to tell us how a reenvisioned housing authority should be. they have been meeting since march and we're looking at the way the -- and we're looking at the way the housing authority is governed, the way it operates, and the services that are provided to the residents. city administrator naomi kelly and the mayor's office of housing director wilson lee are leading this community process and i expect to have their actionable recommendations by july 1st. but i can assure you as someone who myself grew up in public

housing and spent years at a nonprofit legal services providing services to public housing tenants, and also as the previous director of public works, we have been on the ground at sunnydale and other public housing sites. any recommendations issued from my office will take into account the perspectives of our over 12,000 residents who live in public housing across this great city, including some of the most vulnerable families and seniors. the residents in our public housing deserve a higher standard of living and that is agreed by everybody. if you want to have a great city, one where all of the residents can share in our economic recovery, we'll need to stabilize our housing authority and position it as the important first step in the rung of our housing ladder. and then this ladder will help to lift people out of poverty and position them to benefit from the great economy we've created here in san francisco. thank you. >> our final question of the

day will be from our district 11 colleague, supervisor john avalos. >> thank you, mr. mayor, thank you for being here. i don't have a haiku for you today, but i do have a question about housing with so many other questions we have. our economic policies have favored one sided development in san francisco people in the city are talking about. while we do see increased economic activity, we see the cost of living is increasing dramatically in this city. we're seeing rents going up, they are sky rocketing. according to rent jungle in san francisco for a one bedroom apartment, it's $2,500 on average. for a two-bedroom apartment it's $3200 on average to afford a two-bedroom apartment. that means if you look at 30% of your income which is general makeup for understanding what should be paid for your rent or for your housing, you have to make $128,000 as a household in order to afford a two-bedroom house. this is actually making it very, very difficult for even professionals to be able to stay in san francisco and there

are many people who are actually very concerned about how vulnerable they are with the types of evictions that we're seeing, whether ellis act evictions or other evictions based on the cost of living. even in rent controlled apartments that becomes a big concern. i'd like to know what are your efforts in helping to make sure that rents don't increase to astronomical amounts and to be able to bring down the rental cost in san francisco and what ways we can prevent the long-time and total displacement of many populations here in the city? >> thank you, supervisor. i want to deal with the premise of your question first because i think a perspective here needs to be shared. when i took office the unemployment rate was 9.4%. it is now 5.4%. that's the lowest that it's been since 2008. we celebrate this and i'm not a shame of it because we continue to find jobs for residents and continue to get them back to work. ~ in the first quarter of 2011 to

the first quarter of 2012, san francisco added 44,000 additional jobs across the broad range of sectors from construction to manufacturing, hospitality, tourism, transportation, professional and business services, and health care. so, i'm just hoping that you're not blaming the added 44,000 jobs that we helped create because [speaker not understood] 44,000 people that the employment was a bad thing for the city. because while some of those new jobs are in technology, they are also jobs that operate the 35 cranes that are doning our city skyline. in recent economic studies by the bay area economic council have shown for every technology job created, over four additional jobs outside the technology industry are sustained. in a full three quarters of the city's job growth happens outside of the technology industry. now, i understand and share your concerns about making sure

that we have housing for the 100% of san franciscans, but i also know that there's 44,000 new people drawing a paycheck and providing for their families and they're not to blame. we've all spent an extraordinary amount of time and effort to make sure that our housing supply meets needs of everyone who wants to live here. i'll assert that the housing trust fund which you, of all, and all of you have done so much to support, is a national model and an unprecedented investment in our affordable housing stock. we have dedicated over $1.2 billion over the next 30 years to fund housing programs for moderate and low-income is not franciscans so they can also house our work force and keep families in san francisco. there's no other city in america that has stepped up the way we have to make sure that we're addressing the high cost of housing. one other point that i'll mention, and this repeats something that i said in response to supervisor mar's concerns, our city has some of

the toughest antidisplacement and housing preservation policies in the region. and i'll remain committed to ensure that those policies which i have fought so hard to establish are maintained ironclad. between strong renters rights, the housing trust fund, but in all sectors approach to employing thousands if not tens of thousands of out of work san franciscans, i am proud of the work we've done to grow our city while maintaining the ethos of inclusiveness and acceptance that is already and always made san francisco a special place. thank you. >> that conclude the mayor's time. thank you so much, mr. mayor. >> thank you. >> with that, it is now 2:30. colleagues, what i'd like to do is move to our 2:30 special commendation of which we have one by supervisor mark farrell. >> thank you, president chiu. colleagues, today i have the great honor and i hope you will join me in recognizing someone

who actually has no idea he is going to be honored today, someone that's been a friend. i've known his family for a long, long time and has served our city with dedication for almost three decades, and that's our now retired head of our former -- of our police officers association, mr. gary delenas. come on up, gary. (applause) >> he's probably ticked off at me. i'm going to owe you a few beers for this. i want to mention a few things about gary and about his service here in san francisco. he served in the police department for over 35 years ~ was the president and vice president of the poa for about 26. ~ he entered the pd in 1978 and served at mission central, [speaker not understood] division as well as [speaker not understood] and was